One of the dominant stories at the end of the 2023-24 season was the fact that the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) champion Florida State University (FSU) Seminoles were shut out of the College Football Playoffs. We'll never know just how bad that decision was because so many players opted out before the Orange Bowl, so the team's postseason performance isn't a genuine indication of what a Seminoles playoff run would have looked like.
And now FSU and the ACC are going after each other in court. Florida State is under the conference’s grant of rights, which lasts until 2036. That's an awfully long time in the era of conference realignment, and FSU wants to test the waters and see what other conferences have to offer.
The week before Christmas, the two entities filed lawsuits against each other. The ACC went first on Dec. 21, and FSU followed a day later. According to FSU's press release:
...the ACC has failed to fulfill its stated obligations to “generate substantial revenues” and “maximize athletic opportunities” for its members. It details how the ACC’s mishandling of negotiations with ESPN has deprived members of tens of millions in annual revenues and put them behind other Power Four schools in the competition for educational advancement and to appear in elite athletic championships.
Rather than fix those problems, the lawsuit says, the ACC has tried to prevent its members from leaving the Conference by threatening to impose “draconian” withdrawal penalties of at least $572 million — the most onerous in collegiate sports.
This week, the plot thickened in the divorce proceedings between FSU and the ACC. The Athletic's Stewart Mandel reports that "The ACC is seeking an injunction against Florida State barring the school from participating in the conference’s affairs due to FSU’s ongoing attempt to withdraw from the ACC’s grant of rights."
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The ACC's amended suit alleges that Florida State disclosed details of the conference's agreement with ESPN during a trustees' meeting, breaching confidentiality. The conference claims that violations of confidentiality like these have gone on for years.
The ACC's amended lawsuit against FSU today includes four new claims for relief. It alleges FSU violated confidentiality agreements by showing details of the ESPN deal in that BOT meeting.
— Stewart Mandel (@slmandel) January 17, 2024
There's also this doozy. pic.twitter.com/Gw88XD0Y8w
Like everything else in college football these days, this dispute comes down to money. (I know — you're shocked beyond belief.)
"The dispute stems from Florida State’s dissatisfaction with the ACC’s media rights deal with ESPN, which it entered into in 2016 and which the school says will soon cause a revenue gap of $30 million per year with competitors in the Big Ten and SEC," Mandel explains.
Extricating itself from the ACC could mean $572 million in penalties for FSU, which is why the school is taking this fight to the courts. The trustees believe that the hundreds of millions that leaving the ACC would cost is "draconian."
Florida State isn't alone in looking for either more ACC money or a way out. Clemson, Miami, North Carolina, North Carolina State, Virginia Tech, and Virginia have been in discussions alongside FSU in trying to get out of the conference before 2036. After the conference's spring meetings, the schools agreed to work with the ACC to find and develop more revenue streams.
So far, FSU is the only school to take the ACC to court. The other schools may be waiting to see how the Florida State case shakes down, so we might see more fights on the ACC's hands in the future. After all, in modern college football, cash rules everything.
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